ENGR501:
Lesson 1: Leadership
Lesson 1 Overview
For many of us, the possibility of becoming a leader can engender a fight-or-flight response. Often engineers (incorrectly) liken a leader to the dynamic, business-savvy manager who grabs the organization by the horns, tells everyone what to do, and “kicks butt” when things go poorly. You are about to embark on a journey of discovery, where you will learn that you can establish a personal approach to effectively leading engineers. This journey can not only be enjoyable, but also very fulfilling.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this lesson, you should be able to do the following things:
- Identify the differences between leadership and management.
- Recognize important characteristics of leadership.
- Develop self-awareness through the discovery and application of psychometric testing.
Lesson Readings
Please complete any other assigned readings prior to reading the lesson commentary.
- course syllabus
- lesson commentary
- Taylor, S. N., (2010). Redefining leader self-awareness by integrating the second component of self-awareness. Journal of Leadership Studies, 3 (4), 57–68.
- (Optional) Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J., (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25, 36–62.
Lesson Assignments
- Academic Integrity form
- three journal entries
- lesson reading quiz
- discussion forum
Leadership (With Journal Entry 1)
The task of a leader is to get people from where they are to where they have not been.
—Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State
The term leadership means different things to different people; there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have attempted to define it. Most definitions of leadership appear to reflect the assumption that it involves the leader exerting intentional influence over followers, who would not complete their task without such influence.
If you search “leadership” on Amazon, you will get over 250,000 hits. Many articles and books have been published on the subject, indicating that many people believe in the importance of leadership. However, debates continue over how leadership emerges:
- Can it be taught?
- Can it be learned?
- What are the critical elements that make a person effective in leading an organization?
The field of leadership has been studied for millennia and continues to evolve. We will take a look at some of the seminal studies that have laid the foundation for current practices and new theories—but first, let’s consider some great leaders from the past.
| Leader | Photo |
|---|---|
| John F. Kennedy |
Note: Image removed. You will have access to the image in the actual course.
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| Albert Einstein |
Note: Image removed. You will have access to the image in the actual course.
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| Nelson Mandela |
Note: Image removed. You will have access to the image in the actual course.
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| Margaret Thatcher |
Note: Image removed. You will have access to the image in the actual course.
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Stop, Think and Reflect: Journal Entry 1
Identify any three leaders from the past and list their distinguishing characteristics or traits. What made them notable leaders?
Pause in your work and reflect on this question. Submit your answers in the Journal Entry 1 text box before you move on to the rest of the course content.
Often, people who make lists of characteristics, as you did in your journal, will end up producing similar results. You may ask, “are these characteristics innate (nature) or are they developed (nurture)? Are these characteristics a product of the challenges these leaders faced, or would they have risen to greatness in other times and places?” These questions are at the heart of leadership theory throughout history. Lesson 2 will discuss specific leadership theories in more detail.
Focus on Research
Dinh and colleagues (2014) conducted a comprehensive review of the study of leadership over the past 20 years, titled “Leadership Theory and Research in the New Millennium: Current Theoretical Trends and Changing Perspectives.” The article uncovered 66 different leadership theory domains, which both enriches the knowledge of leadership and demonstrates the complexity in defining leadership. The authors’ meta-analysis concludes that future research in leadership theory should focus on integration that unify the diverse approaches.
Journal Entry 1
Answer the following question before moving on to the rest of this course:
- Identify any three leaders from the past and list their distinguishing characteristics or traits. What made them notable leaders?
Reminder: you may also want to consider adding this journal entry to your ELIM e-portfolio introduced in the Overview of the Welcome Module.
| Criteria | Fully Completed | Missing | Points Possible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spend a few moments to think about any three leaders from the past and list their distinguishing characteristics or traits. What made them a notable leader? | 4.0 pts | 0.0 pts | 4.0 pts |
Leadership Versus Management (With Journal Entry 2)
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
—Peter Drucker (The Essential Drucker, 2001)
There are many courses and programs that teach management. By its nature, management follows a well-defined path, identifying
- what work is to be done,
- how it will be done,
- the schedule on which it will be done,
- the people who will do it,
- how it will be tracked and
- how deviations in plans will be handled.
Managers plan, organize and coordinate. Effective managers get the work done - on time, on budget, and to the specifications. On the other hand, leaders picture a new, challenging future and develop new directions. They instill passion and inspire people, seek change and encourage engagement. Managers have subordinates; leaders have followers.
Please take a moment to consider the differentiation between leadership and management.
Stop, Think and Reflect: Journal Entry 2
- What additional differences do you see between leaders and managers?
- Are there characteristics that are common between them?
Stop, think and reflect on these questions. Submit your answers in the Journal Entry 2 text box before you move on to the rest of the course content.
So, are these two concepts of management and leadership diametrically opposed? Does one preclude the other? Is one right and one wrong?
Absolutely not. In fact, they are both present and necessary in today’s world. You should not only understand the differences, but also embrace the value added by each role.
In fact, if you were to consider the typical life cycle of an organization, including those performing engineering-based activities, you can readily see the roles that can and should be played by the leader and the manager.
Figure 1.1 depicts the growth in sales of a business from the initial startup, thru a growth cycle to maturity, at which point the business can take one of two paths: either decline in performance or, if appropriately led, revive so that sales continue to increase.
During the start-up both leadership and management roles are critical—creating the vision and managing the resources. During the growth and maturity periods, managerial skills are key for keeping the business on track. However, leadership is pivotal in assuring that the business is preparing for the revival period; it helps the business avoid decline as the original vision and strategy begin to age, succumb to evolving market pressures, and become obsolete.
This course will help you develop leadership skills in the context of engineering management, marrying the best of both worlds. An effective engineering leader will be able to instill the passion to excel in employees while getting the job done on schedule and within budget. He or she can envision new, innovative directions for the organization, get buy-in from the stakeholders, and make plans happen. While the concentration in this course will be on leadership, it will touch on some aspects of management as well. In addition, key management skills will be further developed in other courses that are part of the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Management programs.
This course will concentrate on the keys to leadership in engineering organizations. Effective leadership may take many forms, from influencing the direction a team takes to managing a multinational corporation. It is also very situational, varying based on the individuals leading or being led, the work environment or task, and the organizational culture. There is no one-size-fits-all approach; rather, you will need to understand the various tools available and make an informed decision on what to use in a given situation. As such, this course will introduce you to an array of theories, tools, and examples (good and bad) that will help you to make informed, constructive decisions in exercising leadership in an engineering organization.
To help you organize these many theories and tools, Lessons 1 and 2 will discuss the following categories:
- self-awareness and personality preferences,
- leadership theories, and
- styles of leadership.
Journal Entry 2
Answer the following questions before moving on to the rest of this course:
- What additional differences do you see between leaders and managers?
- Are there characteristics that are common between them?
Reminder: you may also want to consider adding this journal entry to your ELIM e-portfolio introduced in the Overview of the Welcome Module.
| Criteria | Fully Completed | Missing | Points Possible |
|---|---|---|---|
| What additional differences do you see between leaders and managers? | 2.0 pts | 0.0 pts | 2.0 pts |
| Are there characteristics that are common between them? | 2.0 pts | 0.0 pts | 2.0 pts |
Self Awareness
To begin the discussion of leadership styles and theories, you are encouraged to consider self-awareness, which may be the most fundamental concept in developing strong leadership. A leader is first an individual, and to know yourself is the first step in being able to know and lead others.
Self-awareness can be defined as “a process wherein a person makes assessments about him- or herself and how he or she is perceived by others” (Taylor, 2008, pg. 58). Becoming self-aware happens on both an internal and an external level (recognizing your inner state as well as your impact on others).
Focus on Application
In this study titled, The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence for Teaching and Learning that examined leadership characteristics of 72 executives, self-awareness emerged as the most important characteristic for successful leadership:
“The qualities commonly associated with management and leadership—being authoritative, decisive, forceful, perhaps somewhat controlling—if not moderated by a high degree of awareness as to how one comes across and is perceived by others, are also qualities that have the potential to easily alienate those on the receiving end” (Lipman, 2013, p.1, para. 8)
At its most core, self-awareness is knowing yourself, what makes you react—and, with that awareness, having the ability to control the reaction. The Franklin reality model (Figure 1.2) proposes a relationship between one's inner self, behavior, and performance or results. The model starts with individual needs, including the need to love, survive, feel important, and have variety. These needs are then fed through a filter of the individual's beliefs, then through a filter of the rules in place (e.g. if this exists, then we can do that). Behavior follows this filtering process, and what results from that behavior is then evaluated: Did the results meet the need that drove the behavior? Will continuing that behavior meet future needs? The answerst may affect future actions.
If you were to consider your needs, principles, and “rules” as part of this inner self, then the model suggests the way behavior may be affected with increased self-awareness.
Let’s take a look at each of these elements. At the individual-needs level, it is often helpful to consider Maslow’s hierarchy.
Maslow’s Hierarchy forms a pyramid, with the lowest level being physiological needs (air, food, water, etc.). Safety and security needs, such as employment, property, stability, form the next level up, while the third layer involves love and belonging needs. Moving up the pyramid, you will find self-esteem needs—the ego's needs, including confidence, achievements, respect. The final setp, the capstone of the pyramid, is self-actualization, which includes creativity and inner potential.
Maslow posited that people are motivated to fulfill each need in the pyramid from the bottom up. Once psychological needs are met, they are no longer motivating; the person will look to fulfill safety needs, and so on. As an example, a drowning man is highly motivated to find air, but once found, the next higher item on the hierarchy becomes the motivator—in this case, finding safety from the shark that has begun to circle.
The motivation to satisfy a need then passes through two further filters on the way to satisfying this need by taking action. These two filters are, in the Franklin model, Principles and Rules.
In the Franklin model, once a need has been identified, it will be filtered twice more—through principles and rules—before a person takes action. These filters are influenced by both internal and external factors; they can come from your inner psychological makeup or be externally imposed upon you (especially in the case of rules). While you have limited control over the external influences, by digging into our inner psychological makeup, you can control much of your behavior, making it consistent with your goals.
A leader’s journey into self-awareness—even with its psychological starting point—is ongoing: “Self-awareness is not a destination point, but rather an emerging process where one continually comes to understand his or her unique talents, strengths, sense of purpose, core values, beliefs and desires (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).”
Psychometrics, a study connected to the theory and technique of psychological measurement, allows you to gain insight into our inner state and our impact on others. Psychometrics tends to use well-adjusted people, in typical situations (including stressful ones) as a basis. The value of psychometrics lies in understanding how personal preferences affect not only personal behavior but also the behavior of teammates and coworkers. When shared, this information can lead to improved team performance.
There are a number of well-known and respected techniques available for such assessments, including the Big 5, DiSC, Strength Deployment Inventory, emotional intelligence, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Some of these have no-cost assessments available online, which you may find interesting and insightful:
In this course, we will concentrate on the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and EI. You should have already taken the temperament sorter and we will dig into EI later in the semester.
Keirsey Temperament Sorter (with Journal Entry 3)
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter will place you in one of four categories that reflect your natural preferences. The Sorter is not to be used to pigeonhole people, as there are multiple factors that make each of us unique; however, some general tendencies have been shown to be common among people in each category, no matter where they live. (Note that an assessment of cultural differences is beyond the scope of this course, but will be discussed in a subsequent course, ENGR 802, Engineering Across Cultures and Nations).
In taking this assessment, you will have four temperament categories, which can be viewed as a simplification of the 16-category Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Even though there are only four categories, the temperament categories are still surprisingly powerful, easy to recognize and implement. In addition, they have a strong basis in both history and modern times.
The four temperaments are discussed in the following tabs:
The Artisan, around one-third of the population, represents a free-spirited, fun-loving, flexible, joyful, optimistic, impulsive, and action-oriented person (a famous example is Ronald Reagan). Artisans strive for action, making good trouble-shooters who despise routine.
Review the following video to understand the Artisan in more depth:
The Idealist is diplomatic, empathetic, trusting, and trustworthy. He or she sees human potential, believes in the importance of ethics and integrity, and seeks group unity (e.g. Ghandi is an example). Idealists give recognition freely and search for their own identity (“what will I be when I grow up”). Though they represent only about one-sixth of the population, Idealists form a third of the teaching profession. Idealists are good at forming and maintaining teams, though they despise disagreements.
Review the following video to understand the Idealist in more depth:
The Guardian values responsibility, procedure, structure and authority; he or she tends to be orderly, resist change, and prefer decisiveness. Guardians, who represent about 40% of the population (e.g. Mother Theresa is one) and about 50% of teachers, expect factual evidence to support any decision made. At work, they desire to be part of a meaningful organization, help keep the organization on track, and do not like disarray.
Review the following video to understand the Guardian in more depth:
The Rational is a curious, competitive nonconformist (like Albert Einstein) who tends to want independence from authority but struggles with self-doubt and argumentativeness. Rationals make up roughly 10% of the population and strive not only to be competent themselves, but also to be with competent people. They usually look to implement change in the future.
Review the following video to understand the Rational in more depth:
Stop, Think and Reflect: Journal Entry 3
- What are the positive and negative tendencies of the four temperaments?
- How would these tendencies impact leadership performance?
Pause in your work and reflect on this question. Submit your answers in the Journal Entry 3 text box before you move on to the rest of the course content.
Taking the Temperament sorter assessment is a first step at building self-awareness, as it allows you to understand your inner-self, tendencies, and preferences in more depth. The second step involves understanding how people in the four temperament catagories prefer to interact, thus building self-awareness of your impact on others. Building this external awareness does not happen in isolation; it occurs within interpersonal relationships and interactions.
The Harvard Business Review article, “Redefining leader self-awareness by integrating the second component of self-awareness” (Taylor, 2008), discusses the importance of recognizing your impact on others:
An essential part of leadership is being other-focused (Quinn & Qunn, 2009). The very idea of leader self-awareness suggests an interpersonal process. Specifically, leadership requires a leader, a follower, and a context (Day, 2000; Day & Halpin, 2004; Fiedler, 1996) and is the interaction of these three (Fiedler, 1996). Within this relational view of leadership (Day, Zaccaro, & Halpin, 2004; Uhl-Bien, 2006), leadership development therefore “must attend to the social and intrapersonal nature of the phenomenon [and] depends on fostering social relations among individuals” (Day & Halpin, 2004, p.6). Because leadership is relational (Day et.al., 2004; Kouzes & Poster, 2002; Uhl-Bien, 2006), leaders must develop connections with followers so they become aware of followers' perspectives, hopes, goals, strengths, and developmental needs. (Taylor, 2008, p.59).
The Keirsey Temperaments influence interpersonal interaction in a myriad of ways, though they may have the strongest effect on communication. For example, in preparing a presentation, a team with a strong representation of Rationals may well concentrate on the big picture and how their new ideas will change the organization in the future. However, if the audience includes a high percentage of Guardians, who value facts and prefer maintaining existing structures, the presentation may not be readily accepted. Understanding the temperaments can play a significant role in improving communications.
A leader can ask “Do I react in a way that is most appropriate for the situation, that helps to create positive relationships and move the organization forward?” You may see that your natural tendencies are not always the best, especially when you have to interact with different temperaments.
As we noted earlier, self-awareness is a key foundation for leaderss—knowing yourself, your natural tendencies, can allow you to control your responses. Suppose you are an Artisan, and the team decides that a routine duty should be assigned to you. Your natural reaction may be to shun that assignment. But, if you take time to reflect, you might realize that it is needed for the betterment of the team, allowing you to move forward with the assignment and do it well.
Likewise, awareness of your teammates' personality preferences can be very powerful. Not only can you play to their strengths, you can also work to strengthen their abilities in the areas they may avoid. Lesson 8 will explore this concept further.
The key to getting the most out of psychometrics is to be open to expanding your horizons and to share your preferences with your team so that they get to know more about you. Psychometric information is a very powerful tool and a very deep topic. You may want to extend your study of it; in fact, you are encouraged to do so. In addition, as you progress through other courses in this program, you will delve into other psychometric tools.
To get a feel for two other psychometric assessments, watch the following five-minute video.
Journal Entry 3
Answer the following questions before moving on to the rest of this course:
- What are the positive and negative tendencies of the four temperaments?
- How would these tendencies impact leadership performance?
Reminder: you may also want to consider adding this journal entry to your ELIM e-portfolio introduced in the Overview of the Welcome Module.
| Criteria | Fully Completed | Missing | Points Possible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Think about and capture the positive and negative tendencies of the four Temperaments that may impact leadership performance. | 4.0 pts | 0.0 pts | 4.0 pts |
Lesson 1 Summary
Congratulations! You have completed the introductory lesson for this course on leading organizations. As you can see, leadership is multifaceted, and many approaches will be defined, investigated, proposed, and tested. But rest assured—with your dedicated study of the lessons in this course, you will be in a position to formulate your own personal leadership styles, implementing them at the right time in the right situations.
In summary, in this lesson, you learned the following things:
- Management and leadership, while dramatically different skill sets, both are required to be effective in leading today’s complex engineering businesses.
- Most definitions of leadership appear to reflect the assumption that leaders exert intentional influence over followers.
- Whether leadership is innate or acquired has been debated for centuries (and continues to be). Sufficient evidence is present to show that hard work and careful study can nurture leadership skills (Forsyth, 2009).
- You can control your future success by developing the traits and skills to be an effective leader.
- Psychometric tools are available to increase self-awareness of your inner state and its potential impact on others.
- Psychometric analyses may not agree in total with your own expectations. Such differences are normal, reflecting some of the uniqueness of each individual.
References
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C., & Hu, J. (2014) Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives, Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pg. 36–62.
Drucker, P. (2001). The Essential Drucker. New York, NY: HarperColins.
Forsyth, D. R. (2009). Group dynamics. New York: Wadsworth.
Lipman, V. (2013, January, 18). Why are so many employees disengaged? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/01/18/why-are-so-many-employees-disengaged/#3409d17a1e22
Taylor, S. (2008). Redefining leaders' self-awareness by integrating the second component of self-awareness. Harvard Business Review, 86(4), 57–68.
Lesson 1 Activities
Lesson 1 Reading Quiz
Please choose the best answer to the questions.
Lesson 1 Discussion Forum
This post is designed to provide us all with an introduction to each other by review of your Kiersey Temperment Sorter results. First, briefly introduce yourself:
- Who are you:
- What do you do for a living? What is your background?
- What are some things that define you?
- What are some of your hobbies?
Next, review your results of the Kiersey Temperament Sorter. In a discussion post, list the temperament the assessment identified for you and answer the following questions:
- What did you learn about your inner state? Your preferences?
- How well did the identified temperament match your view of yourself?
- Reflect on how your inner state may potentially impact your leadership performance.
You must post your initial response to the discussion board by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. North American ET. You must reply to 2 peer responses by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. North American ET.